Between a Blessing and a Curse
by Chakat StarDust
Summary: What is the difference between a blessing and a curse? Transdimensional rifts and familiar faces hold the answer


Star: So a little plot bunny came by and bit me, and a friend of mine told me I should get it down on paper, so here it is. BBC owns Doctor Who and all its characters.

"So, where to this time, Sweetie?" River Song asked, striding into the TARDIS liked she owned it. She sort of did, after all, she was the child of it. She could not only hear the hum and whir of her, but also practically feel the rhythms of the TARDIS' proverbial heart. Her Doctor smiled at her, goofy and gorgeous all at once.

"It's a surprise, River, I can't tell you that." He said, voice toned low like he always did when he was trying to be mysterious and sexy. "You will have to change into something nice before we get out though."

"Tease." She complained with a smile.

"You like it." He retorted, tapping her lightly on the nose.

"That depends on what you're teasing me with." Her Doctor smiled at her. She didn't get to flirt with him as often as she would like, but it did make the moments she could all the sweeter. "So, where are we?" She asked, putting out her trusty blue notebook. She looked at him, judging his age and began flipping through the pages. "Hmm, meteor shower on Mars, have we done that?" He shook his head. "Alright then, how about the dinner with Madame Vastra and Jenny?"

"What, where Madame Vastra got into a debate with me about corporeal punishment just to try to rile me up?" The Doctor asked.

"Ah good, there we are." She shut the book with a clap that ringed of finality and put it away. "now husband, I demand a kiss."

"Do you now?" He teased, another smile making its way across his face. She grinned and slid into his embrace while he pressed his lips to hers. They kissed until they needed air and then parted, the Doctor gasping like a fish out of water.

"We don't do that nearly often enough, Sweetie." River declared. Judging by the dazed and pleased look on the Doctor's face, he agreed wholeheartedly.

"Alright, let's get going!" The Doctor declared, proceeding to run around the TARDIS console like a bumbling puppy, pushing buttons, pulling levers as he got them going to wherever they were going. The TARDIS lurched and River rolled her eyes, the Doctor still wouldn't listen to her about how to properly fly her.

Things were going smoothly, until the TARDIS lurched in a way that it should not have, and the note in her mechanized song became distinctly worried. River and the Doctor rushed around, trying to right things, but nothing seemed to be working. River wasn't panicking, odd things were always happening around the Doctor, after all, at least she wasn't panicking until the console crackled, and electricity leapt through the Doctor's contact with it and through his body.

He seized for a moment before going rigid and collapsing on the floor of the TARDIS. River tried to move towards him but the TARDIS lurched sideways and she smashed into one of the guard rails, blacking out.

John Alonso Smith felt his jaw crack on the fifty-third yawn he'd made since he woke up only an hour earlier. He rubbed at sore eyes and tried to focus on the computer screen in front of him, but it was a bit of a losing battle. He looked up at the 'clink' of a mug being set in front of him, and the smell of freshly brewed coffee that accompanied it.

"Not much sleep last night?" His wife asked.

"No, not at all." John agreed, turning his chair to face her. Her face lit up in a wicked grin.

"Well, better you than me." Rose Tyler, now Rose Smith, teased.

"Cruel, cruel woman, why did I marry you again?" He teased back, gazing at her fondly. She replied by sticking her tongue out at him and then going in for a kiss. The sound of the alarm parted them and John turned back to his terminal to see what they'd caught this time, his sleepiness all but forgotten.

"Ooh, it's a big one today!" He said excitedly. He liked the days they had something big to do, mostly it was directing lost or drunk aliens back to their homeworlds and making sure humans didn't see them. Rose looked over her shoulder at him as he typed in his keyboard. "Let's see if we can get a better energy reading, figure out what we got before we…" He trailed off, looking at the energy signature. He blinked a couple times and checked it again, growing alarmed.

"John, what is it?" Rose asked, noticing his agitation.

"It can't be, that's… no not impossible, highly unlikely, but still, not good!" John declared, just about leaping out of his chair. "Gotta go!" Rose ran after him. He almost thought about telling her to stay, but that wouldn't be fair, and she wouldn't have listened anyways. "We're going to that energy signal." He explained, but said nothing more. In his lone, human heart he hoped he was wrong, but his Time Lord mind told him otherwise.

Thankfully their target had landed outside the city, where no one was likely to spot it, or rather, her. Rose let out a gasp as they stepped over a rise and looked down at a very familiar blue police box. "It can't be." She whispered. She took a step forward, and then hesitated. John couldn't help the relief at that hesitation, knowing that only a relatively short time ago Rose would have been running down to that box and demanding to be let it. Then again, he would have been too.

"Do you… do you think he's the same?" Rose asked.

Don't know." John shrugged. "Time travel, could have been hours, could have been days, years, centuries or longer for him since he last saw us." He sighed. "Do you still have it?" Rose took out the chain she wore on her neck, waving the key at the end of it in the air. They'd agreed that she should carry it, just in case something happened.

"We should probably go see." Rose said after a moment of them just standing there.

"Yeah, we should." They looked at each other, anxiety mirrored in each other's eyes and then clasped hands, walking down towards the TARDIS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~]

River regained consciousness slowly, with a pounding headache. Because she was River Song she didn't let that stop her and sat up, pressing one hand to the spot that hurt the most and inspecting it. No blood; that was a good thing. She then looked around, feeling the subdued heartbeat of the TARDIS and noticing the lights were dimmed. Not too bad, but they weren't going to be going anywhere any time soon.

She then remembered the Doctor and scrambled up, searching for him. He lay where he had fallen, face-down on the floor, unmoving. She moved over to him and had just knelt down to check on him when she heard the lock of the door click. She froze for a moment, looking at the door, and then took out her gun, aiming it as the door slowly creaked open.

A head of messy brown hair poked inside, bright brown, intelligent eyes set below expressive brows taking in the interior and then her, pointing a gun at him. His eyes widened and his mouth opened to speak, but River beat him to the punch, angry. "You know better, I know you know better." She half-snarled, her composure gone. "Get out now, before it's too late, or I'll shoot you, not fatally, but it will still hurt."

"Wait, I'm not him!" The man claimed. "Well, I was him, but sort of not, and I don't even know if you know about the whole Earth being stolen, metacrisis event, but I'm not-"

"Not the Doctor." River could have melted in relief, but she was River Song, she didn't do that sort of thing. What she did do was put up her gun and smile at him. "Well then, you can give me a hand with him."

The metacrisis Doctor came in, hand-in-hand with a pretty, curvy blonde. River knew exactly who it was. "Rose Tyler, I've heard a lot about you." She said, trying not to think how this might affect the Doctor.

"Well, it's Rose Smith now, I married John." Rose explained. River smiled at John.

"Some things don't change I suppose, he still doesn't have that much creativity for names." She informed them and then rolled the Doctor over onto his back.

"Blimey, would you get a look at that chin." John said. "And where are his eyebrows. He looks about five years old." River ignored John's ramblings and placed a hand over each of the Doctor's hearts. The right one sounded fine, the left one was beating, but in an erratic pattern. "And what's with the stuffy old college professor look?" John asked. Rose was laughing at him.

The Doctor groaned and opened his eyes, sitting up. "Welcome back, Sweetie." River greeted him. "Why is it when I'm with you, you always end up nearly dying?"

"Oh, shut up River." The Doctor said grumpily, looking around. "Never get any rest from her, do I Rose," He shook a finger in Rose's face for emphasis. "And half the time it's her fault I'm dying…" The Doctor trailed off, really seeing Rose for the first time. There was a moment of silence and then the Doctor slumped again, unconscious.

"Oh no you don't!" River declared, slapping him in the face.

"OW!" The Doctor complained, sitting up quickly and rubbing his cheek. "River!"

"Fainting at a time like this, Sweetie?" River raised an eyebrow at the Doctor, who scowled at her.

"I did not faint, I must have an injury or I'm dying again. Are you wearing your poison lipstick again?" He pulled himself upright using the console. "No, hold on!" He sat back down again between River and Rose. "Where are we?"

"You're in our dimension." John replied.

"Yes we are, of course we are, no other explanation, I knew that." The Doctor said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch, who are you?" Rose asked, looking at River.

"That's River Song." John replied. "She's… um…"

"Well, she's.. she's my…" River rolled her eyes at the Doctor's stuttering.

"I'm his wife." River answered.

"Excuse me?!" Rose exclaimed. "How does that work?"

"It's complicated." River replied.

"He leads me on a merry dance for months on end, Time Lord, so old, can't spend the rest of my life with you, and then he goes and marries someone?" Rose demanded.

"It's a bit different with me, I'm a complicated time-space event." River replied. The Doctor put a stop to their arguing by placing a hand over each of their mouths.

"Honestly, I can't hear myself think with you two bickering. It's a good thing Amy's not here, it would be insufferable, oh she's going to give me an earful if I'm late, and now I've gone and spoiled the surprise, haven't I?" He said grumpily. "What about you, have you got anything to say?" He asked John.

"Yes, actually." John replied. "Which one are you?"

"Eleven."

"You're still not ginger!" John practically yelled, annoyed.

"How do you think I feel?" The Doctor yelled back. "I've been nearly killed twice without the option of regeneration and each time my biggest regret is that I will never be ginger!"

"Wait, you can be stopped from being regenerated and just die?" Rose asked.

"Yes, and both time's it's been her fault." The Doctor said, sticking a finger in River's face. "She's either trying to kiss me or kill me, well, one time it was both."

"I'm starting to see why he married you." Rose commented. River smirked at her.

"Oh, you have no idea."

"Alright, enough chit-chat, we need to get this TARDIS back into shape and get ourselves back to the right universe." The Doctor said, standing up and racing around on those ridiculous legs of his. "We've still got some power which means-"

"We've still got a connection to our universe." River finished for him. "We'll need a boost though to get enough power to make the jump, assuming the connection stays open long enough for that."

"We've got something to help with the power boost." John informed them. "Created it, you know, just in case."

"Good thinking, best get the old girl back into shape though before we have that, looks like I've got at least a few connections loose. You, with me!" The Doctor ordered, pointing at John before scampering down to the floor below the console.

"My name is John by the way."

"Yes it is, of course it is, why would it be anything else?" The Doctor said. "Come on, we've got work to do. River, take care of things up here, thanks!"

River moved to the console, scanning and fixing the damages done. Rose moved up beside her, watching her. "You're very familiar with the TARDIS." She commented.

"She taught me about her." River explained.

"She can do that? Is that part of the complicated part?" Rose asked.

"Well, yes, some of it. I was conceived in the TARDIS, you see, so some of that energy is in me, and my mother had a crack in time-space in her bedroom as a child and that leaked into her, so no child of hers would have ever been normal." River explained. "I'm human, mostly. I used to be able to regenerate, but I used up all of that to save the Doctor the first time I tried to kill him."

"You can do that, give up your regenerations? Could he have done that?" River saw where Rose was going and took her hand.

"Rose, he still would have lived hundreds of years after you were gone." She reminded her gently. "Would you have damned him to that?"

"No." Rose replied softly. "But how does it work for you, then?"

"We're time travellers, the both of us." River explained. "It is sometimes hard, because I'll come across a younger Doctor, and he won't know me as well as the last time, and won't have the same feelings for me, and that hurts. I fear that day when he looks at me and doesn't know who I am anymore."

"I'm sorry." Rose said.

"Don't be, it's worth it." River smiled.

"Your mum traveled with the Doctor?"

"Still does." River took the picture attached to the computer screen and showed Rose. "That's my parents, Amy and Rory."

"A bit young, aren't they?" Rose asked. "Wait, time traveller, right."

"You'd probably like mother, she keeps him on his toes."

~~~~~~~~~}

"Alright, old girl, let's get you patched up." John helped the Doctor reconnecting tubes and wires and things for which the English language had no name. "So, you and Rose… how are you both?"

"Good, brilliant, been about five years, got married after two, just had our first little one about six months ago." John replied.

"Oh, a baby." The Doctor said. "Lovely."

"How long has it been, for you?" John asked. There was a long pause.

"Three hundred years."

"Doesn't get any easier."

"You know it doesn't." The Doctor said in annoyance. John nodded. "You're both happy though, right?"

"Yes, we are." John assured him.

"Good, good." John could still hear the guilt in his voice.

"Husband! We're done here." River called.

"Good, we're done down here too." The Doctor yelled back and raced upstairs. John wondered how he moved with those ridiculous legs of his and followed him back up. "Now all we need is that power boost."

"We'll have to get it from Torchwood, would you rather stay here?" John asked, knowing the answer to that question.

"Why would we stay, staying is boring, come on River, Geronimo!" River rolled her eyes, but she followed the Doctor out. Thankfully Torchwood had teleportation, so it didn't take long to get back to headquarters.

"And where have you two been?" Jackie asked, holding their baby in her arms. "This little one's been up and looking for his mummy." She handed Rose their little brown haired, brown eyed baby boy. "Who's this?" Jackie asked, looking at River and the Doctor.

"I'm the Doctor, hello again Jackie." The Doctor said.

"Gone and changed your face again, I see, and gotten another woman to travel with you."

"Oh, I don't travel with him, he just comes when I call. I'm River Song."

"Someone who gets the Doctor to come when he's called, I like you already." Jackie said, moving off.

"Give me you, Amy and Rose screaming at me over Jackie Tyler any day." John heard the Doctor murmur to River. Rose moved forward, bringing their baby to the Doctor.

"Doctor, this is Jack, our son." The Doctor blinked and then held out his arms, taking their child and holding him.

"Hello Jack, I hope you don't grow up to be like the other Jack I know." He said. Jack cooed at him. "You should really call her mum, what is it with babies and referring to their mothers by their mammary glands?"

"Doctor?"

"Oh, I speak baby." The Doctor cocked his head, listening. "Yes, they've very important people, but let me tell you something, Jack my boy, everybody is important, take it from me. Twelve hundred years of time and space and I've never met anyone who wasn't. You remember that, alright?"

He handed Jack back to Rose and John could see that his eyes were wet and sad. "Well then, let's get this sorted, shall we?" He suggested, holding the small briefcase with the energy device needed to power the TARDIS enough to get it out of this universe.

Rose handed Jack back to her mother and they were off again. John handed the device to the Doctor and stepped back with Rose. "Not coming?" The Doctor asked.

"It's self-explanatory." John replied. The Doctor moved towards the both of them, eyes searching.

"You two, you understand why I did what I did, right?" He asked them quietly.

"Yes." Rose answered without hesitation. "That doesn't mean we weren't mad at first, but we understand, and we thank you for that."

The Doctor's eyes were wet again as John put his hands on his shoulders. "You are forgiven, always and forever forgiven, so let that burden fall." He said, knowing what it was like, to carry that guilt, and knew that there were a thousand more like it. The Doctor embraced him, fiercely, tightly. "You take care of her, you hear me?"

"Of course." John replied. The Doctor released him and then hugged Rose, gentler than he had John.

"And you take care of him." He said and then released her. "I guess we'd better go, are you sure…?"

"Yes, Doctor, this is our home, and we're happy here." Rose told him, taking John's hand. The Doctor nodded and went into the TARDIS. Rose and John held hands and watched her disappear, taking the loneliest man in the universe with her.

~~~~~~~~{

"So, going to see Mother and Father are we?" River asked, keeping her tone light.

"Yes, wedding anniversary. They wanted us both there, Amy said she'd hunt me down if I didn't." The Doctor said, his voice lacking his usual humour. River placed her hand over his and he looked at her. "Do you know the difference between a blessing and a curse is?"

"What, Husband?" The Doctor smiled sadly.

"Sometimes nothing at all."


End file.
